Long-Term Association Between GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Use and Incident Pancreatic Cancer: A Propensity Score-Matched Retrospective Cohort Study Using the TriNetX Network
- Design
- Retrospective cohort · Unknown outcome
- Match to healthy normal-weight adults aged 55–75
- Different population[Auto] Participants had obesity/overweight (age/BMI not reported in abstract).
- Could weight loss explain it?
- Possibly[Auto] Participants had obesity and/or type 2 diabetes and the abstract does not separate direct drug effects from weight loss or glycaemic improvement.
- Study tier
- Study tier 3[Auto] Observational design; confounding by indication and healthy-user effects cannot be excluded (auto-provisional).
- Assessment
- Version 1 · automatic, not yet reviewed by a person · Sep 20, 2026
Study facts come from the paper. Population match, weight-loss explanation and study tier are our judgments, made against the reference group of healthy normal-weight adults aged 55–75.
[Auto, unreviewed; quoted from abstract conclusions] In this large, real-world, propensity score-matched analysis, the direction and magnitude of the association between GLP-1 RA use and pancreatic cancer risk varied by comparator agent. GLP-1 RA use was associated with a lower hazard of pancreatic cancer relative to metformin, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones, and DPP-4i while no significant difference relative to SGLT2i, and a higher hazard relative to insulin.
01Findings
What the study reported
- Drugs
- Class unspecified
- Comparator
- six classes of antidiabetic agents
- Primary outcome
- Not extracted
- Effect
- Not extracted
- 95% confidence interval
- Not extracted
- Follow-up
- Not stated
- Adverse events
- Not extracted
- Limitations
- Auto-classified from abstract only; effect estimates, adverse events and limitations not extracted. Requires manual review.
Who was studied
- Obesity status
- obesity/overweight present (all or most)
- Diabetes status
- diabetes mentioned
Study quality details
- Study design
- Retrospective cohort
- Sample size
- not extracted
- Randomization
- no
- Blinding
- not stated
- Comparator
- not stated
- Follow up duration
- not stated
- Outcome type
- unknown
- Replication
- not assessed (auto)
- Consistency with other evidence
- not assessed (auto)
- Population applicability
- INDIRECT
- Statistical precision
- CI reported: 95% confidence intervals (CIs
- Risk of bias
- not assessed (auto)
- Funding conflicts
- unclear
- Peer review status
- yes
02Funding
Funding and conflicts
- Funding
- not reported in abstract
- Industry funded
- Unclear
- Manufacturer
- None identified
- Sponsor role
- not reported in abstract
- Author conflicts
- Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
- Independent replication
- unknown
Funding is shown on every study and never used to score it.
04Source
The source, as retrieved
Abstract
[BACKGROUND] Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are widely prescribed for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity. Whether GLP-1 RA use is associated with altered long-term pancreatic cancer risk remains uncertain, with conflicting evidence from prior observational studies. We aimed to evaluate the association between initiation of GLP-1 RA therapy and incident pancreatic cancer risk compared with six classes of antidiabetic agents. [METHODS] We conducted a retrospective, new-user cohort study using the TriNetX global federated electronic health record network. Adults with T2DM initiating GLP-1RA therapy were compared with incident users of insulin, metformin, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, sulfonylureas, and thiazolidinediones in six separate propensity score-matched analyses (1:1, greedy nearest-neighbor algorithm, caliper 0.1 pooled standard deviations). Matching was performed on 39 baseline covariates,, including demographics, comorbidities, procedures, and medication exposures. The primary outcome was incident pancreatic cancer (ICD-10-CM C25) occurring between 365 and 7,300 days after the index prescription. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression. [RESULTS] After propensity score matching, GLP-1 RA users compared with insulin users had a lower hazard of pancreatic cancer (HR 0.43, 95% CI 0.35, 0.53; absolute risk: GLP-1 RA 0.15% vs. insulin 0.11%; absolute risk difference [ARD] 0.04% points). In contrast, users of metformin (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.16, 1.66; ARD 0.04% points), sulfonylureas (HR 1.37, 95% CI 1.13, 1.65; ARD 0.07% points), thiazolidinediones (HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.001, 1.678; ARD 0.15% points) and DPP-4i (HR 1.31; 95% CI 1.06, 1.61; ARD 0.08% points) had significantly higher hazards of pancreatic cancer compared with GLP-1 RA users. No significant difference was observed between GLP-1 RA users and users of SGLT2 inhibitors (HR 1.08, 95% CI 0.87, 1.34). [CONCLUSIONS] In this large, real-world, propensity score-matched analysis, the direction and magnitude of the association between GLP-1 RA use and pancreatic cancer risk varied by comparator agent. GLP-1 RA use was associated with a lower hazard of pancreatic cancer relative to metformin, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones, and DPP-4i while no significant difference relative to SGLT2i, and a higher hazard relative to insulin.
Where this record came from
| Source | Retrieved | Identifier |
|---|---|---|
| pubmed | Sep 20, 2026 | 42745130 first ingestion |